Using DIF For Small Objects
by Scott Doerrfeld · in Torque Game Engine · 07/14/2006 (10:10 am) · 6 replies
I am creating a street scene for Torque that contains several props (parking meters, stop signs, street lights, etc.) I want each prop to be an individual object so that I can take advantage of Level Of Detail. I am not sure whether to make an individual prop using the .dif or .dts format. I know traditionally .dif's are used for large objects/buildings, but it seems the advantage to having, say, a .dif parking meter would be automatic collision, not to mention it would cast shadows from the sun.
Would this work more efficiently in the engine than, say, a .dts parking meter with collision mesh?
Thanks.
Would this work more efficiently in the engine than, say, a .dts parking meter with collision mesh?
Thanks.
About the author
#2
07/14/2006 (10:15 am)
Kind of like the many other threads entitled "DTS vs. DIF" floating around here?
#3
07/14/2006 (10:18 am)
Good rule to go by if you want the player walk around inside of it, it should be dif. If not is should be dts. So in other words your parking meter should be dts.
#4
Will the smaller objects be culled no matter whether they are .dts or .dif?
07/14/2006 (10:24 am)
So say I have a huge buidling that is blocking the player's view from all my smaller objects.Will the smaller objects be culled no matter whether they are .dts or .dif?
#5
07/14/2006 (10:39 am)
They won't be culled at all. The only options you have for rendering optomization is distance LOD and portalling. Interiors don't do any occlusion other than based on portals. So any object _inside_ a portalled area that doesn't have the portal visible won't be rendered. This applies to both .dts objects and interior geometry within the portal. Also both .dts and .dif support LOD. So really... I'd say it depends on how accurate you need collision and lighting to be. TLK can potentially nullify the issues with lighting and .dts. Also modelling will of course be easier with .dts. Collision is always going to be better with .dif though. 
#6
But players are way more expensive than plain old static DTS shapes, because of skinning.
I can blah-blah more if interested.
Also there's some talk of implementing anti-portals, which would essentially cull out stuff that's behind buildings.
07/14/2006 (11:16 am)
For player rendering, i wrote a simple routine which does raycasts to select points on the player to see if it's occluded by buildings. It was a huge rendering speedup in certain situations.But players are way more expensive than plain old static DTS shapes, because of skinning.
I can blah-blah more if interested.
Also there's some talk of implementing anti-portals, which would essentially cull out stuff that's behind buildings.
Torque Owner Scott Doerrfeld